of Villafranca that he looked
for it on the map in the Adriatic, and was confounded when
Lord Clarendon showed His Majesty that it was the Port of Nice
and ten miles from his frontier!"]

_Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians._

OSBORNE, _17th December 1858_.

MY DEAREST UNCLE,--I wrote in such a hurry on Wednesday that I wish to
make amends by writing again to-day, and entering more properly into
what _you_ wrote about in your kind letter....

I really _hope_ that there is no _real_ desire for war in the
Emperor's mind; we have also explained to him strongly how _entirely_
he would _alienate_ us from him if there was any _attempt_ to _disturb
standing and binding treaties_. The Empress-Dowager of Russia[54] is
very ill, they say, with bronchitis and fever.

I did not tell you, that when we went on the 2nd to Claremont I was
_not_ pleased with the Queen's appearance. She had had a slight cold,
and I thought her very _feeble_. They keep her rooms so fearfully
[hot] that it must really be _very_ weakening for her and predispose
her to cold. I am ever, your devoted Niece,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 54: The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (formerly the
Princess Louise Charlotte of Prussia, sister to King Frederick
William IV.), widow of the Emperor Nicholas.]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER XXVIII

Parliamentary Reform was the question of the hour at the outset of the
year 1859, and the Derby Government, though with difficulty able to
maintain itself in power, took the courageous step of introducing
a Reform Bill, the chief feature of which was the introduction of
a franchise based on personal property. Mr Walpole and Mr Henley
thereupon withdrew from the Ministry, and Lord John Russell,
from below the gangway, proposed an Amendment, protesting against
interference with the established freehold franchise, and calling for
a larger extension of the suffrage in towns. Lord Palmerston and the
Liberal Opposition supported the Amendment, while Mr Gladstone, who
was opposed to most of the provisions of the Bill, supported it in
preference to the Amendment, pleading, at the same time, for the
retention of the small boroughs. The Ministry were defeated, and
Parliament thereupon dissolved, but not until the civil functionaries
and all ranks of the native and European army had received its thanks
for the final suppression of the Indian Mutiny. The Ministry gained
twenty-five seats at